InformationWeek

July 31, 2000

Haste Makes Waste, But Speed Is Of The Essence In IT

he ever-growing need for speed plays an important role in the changing IT organization. Traditional 12- to 18-month development cycles have gone the way of batch processing; even three-month cycles are leisurely in some circles. Web-oriented businesses measure cycle time in hours, not days. Ask most IT executives, and they'll tell you that the pressure to accelerate is in itself accelerating.

At networking company 3Com Corp., programmers who previously worked on development of internal applications have been redeployed to E-business systems and strategies; their previous work has been largely replaced with packaged software. Some of those programmers now work on the company's SAP system and similar business-oriented processes, but up to 150 people have been appointed to the company's rapid application development group. That group is helping to make 3Com a business that runs entirely on the Web, using a virtual private network. Because of the broader business implications, the group is under incredible pressure to make the migration happen as quickly as possible. "They get a requisition in the morning and have it out by afternoon," CIO David Starr says. "The bar is in motion all the time."

When a Web site is used as a customer communication tool or a product-distribution channel, IT might be called in on a daily-or even hourly-basis to make updates or improvements. CarsDirect.com Inc. estimates it receives between 800,000 and 1 million visitors each month. Most application updates, such as changes to the vehicle configurator or enhancements to the lease-loan calculator, are done each evening. Updates to the Web site are turned around "in an hour or two," says CIO Debra Domeyer. "Our idea of time is shifting."

Speed requirements have also transformed IT from a reactive organization to a proactive one. For years, IT departments were accustomed to working in response to technology requests from business units. But even rapid response is the slow lane now, as a successful IT organization must do its part to anticipate business needs.

The IT department used to be reactive at software company Candle Corp., says Mike Caruso, former CIO and now VP of customer service. "The business would say, 'Jump!' and we'd jump," he says. But a year ago, Candle began a process of aligning IT with business. In fact, the company's customer-relationship management strategy was put together within IT from lots of discussion with other business units about what needed to be done. "We were good at being reactive, but IT's responsibility is to get out in front," Caruso says.

At enterprise applications vendor J.D. Edwards & Co., VP of IT infrastructure Ken Migaki puts his team to work as soon as a solid idea is agreed on within IT. "We used to wait for approval. But now, by the time we propose an idea, we've already thought out how we'd implement it," Migaki says. "If I can preposition a project, I can minimize reactiveness on our part."

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